Console Access to NetScaler VPX on SDX

If you have worked with a NetScaler SDX before, there might have been a time in which you lost access to the VPX due to a change in configuration (say, adding a route). The easy solution is to reboot, typically reverting back to the last configuration. But then you don't get to troubleshoot what's happening, and may have a hard time figuring out what may need to be changed to get to the desired state.

Well, it turns out you can connect to the console of the VPX through XenServer. The steps are below:

Connect via SSH to XenServer IP. The default credentials are:

username: root / password: nsroot

Once connected, run the command "xl list".

This will output a list of the VPX appliances, shown below:

[root@netscaler-sdx ~]# xl list

Name ID Mem VCPUs State Time(s)

Domain-0 0 741 4 r----- 964079.7

XenMobile 32 4095 2 -b---- 1680653.3

Production 33 8191 3 r----- 18355135.4

Management Service VM 34 2047 1 r----- 36.4

From here, you can run many other commands, including rebooting a VPX. To reboot the XenMobile VPX, you would run this command:

xl reboot 32

To connect to the console, you can run this:

xl console 32

After you hit enter, you can hit enter again and you will get the login prompt on the XenMobile VM. This is the same as what you might see in the Virtual Center console for a VPX running on VMware. To get back to the XenServer console, hit CTRL+].

This has saved me a few times, and hope it can help some of you out there.

Of course, if you need our assistance, Gotham would be happy to help. :)

Brian has over ten years’ experience in the planning, design, and implementation of technology solutions. He supervises technical specialists at projects, and has spoken at many technical seminars. Brian is an application integration specialist with experience configuring over 1,000 applications to work in multi-user environments, and manages Gotham’s thin client and server consolidation practices.